Fantasy Rugby Tips, Picks and Pre-match Thoughts – Rugby World Cup Semi-Finals

Into the semis and our next instalment of our pre-match updates where we analyse the upcoming lineups, crunch the stats and see what the bookies are thinking to help you optimise your lineups for peak performance this weekend! By the time you finish this article you should have all the insight you need to score big fantasy points this week.

Potential mismatches

Here are the Semi-Final matches and the handicap lines provided by the bookies, at this stage with just 4 teams left, the opportunities for mismatches are very slim and the player pool small so the opportunities to find an edge are running low!

  • New Zealand to beat England by 7 points
  • South Africa to beat Wales 9 points

Expected to go well

FRONT ROW

  • Codie Taylor (New Zealand)
  • Bongi Mbonambi (South Africa)
  • Mako Vunipola (England)
  • Tendai Mtawarira (South Africa)
  • Kyle Sinckler (England)

LOCKS

  • Lood De Jager (South Africa)
  • Maro Itoje (England)
  • Brodie Retallick (New Zealand)

BACK ROW

  • Duane Vermeulen (South Africa)
  • Pieter-Steph Du Toit (South Africa)
  • Billy Vunipola (England)
  • Ardie Savea (New Zealand)

SCRUM-HALF

  • Aaron Smith (New Zealand)
  • Faf De Klerk (South Africa)

FLY HALF

  • Handre Pollard (South Africa)
  • Richie Mo’unga (New Zealand)
  • Beauden Barrett (New Zealand)*

CENTRES

  • Jack Goodhue (New Zealand)
  • Manu Tuilagi (England)
  • Damian De Allende (South Africa)
  • Anton Lienart-Brown (New Zealand)

OUTSIDE BACKS

  • Sevu Reece (New Zealand)
  • Makazole Mapimpi (South Africa)
  • Jonny May (England)
  • Sbu Nkosi (South Africa)

* Players who are categorised in a different position in some games but are starting in a potentially more favourable position to accumulate fantasy points (i.e. A centre on the wing)


 

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Get free tickets to The Rugby Show

The Rugby Show is a two-day gathering at the Ricoh Arena, home of Wasps, in July 2020. The Rugby Show already has a fantastic range of phenomenal speakers from across the professional game. The likes of Lawrence Dallaglio, Maggie Alphonsi, current England World Cup duo, Joe Marler and George Kruis and World Cup winner Sarah Hunter will be talking about their own experiences, about coping with injury, maintaining fitness, nutrition, providing demonstrations on how to improve your skills as a player and more. The line-up also includes recent MMA convert James Haskell, Premiership regulars Jimmy Gopperth and Tommy Taylor to name a few. Registration has now gone live and as an ambassador of the Rugby Show, Fantasy Rugby Geek is offering you FREE ENTRY to the event (which usually costs £15 for an adult ticket). Click this link https://the-rugby-show-2020.reg.buzz/fantasy-rugby-geek and enter the following code TRS20GRASSROOTS to book your FREE tickets now!

Looking for more Fantasy Rugby insight and Resources?

New for the 2019/20 season, we are proud to present the The Fantasy Rugby Handbook. An exhaustive collection of wisdom and experience gained from over a decade of fantasy rugby playing. Primarily aimed at less experienced players but with enough nuggets of wisdom and insight for even the most grizzled fantasy rugby veteran. There is something here for all players. The eBook is available to download now for just £3.99 on Gumroad as a PDF and on Amazon in Kindle format (Free on Kindle Unlimited) – check it out!

If you want some more sources to help you finalise your decisions, go to our resources page where you’ll find all the 2019 Rugby World Cup fantasy games, all the stats sources, injury news, team news, fantasy relevant rugby betting odds and tons of other useful information.

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If you back your Fantasy Rugby skills to lead you to Fantasy Rugby World Cup glory and win you some stash while you are at it, then join our public fantasy league on The Rugby Magazine fantasy game, where a Fantasy Rugby Geek Trucker Hat will be on offer for the winner of the league. To join, Sign up to the game here & go to Leaderboards > Public Leagues and join “Fantasy Rugby Geek”. Good luck!

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